Introduction to Swedish/Alphabet

The Swedish alphabet contains 29 letters:

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The Swedish alphabet.

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö

The last three letters, Å, Ä, and Ö, are regarded as distinct letters, separate from A and O. Whereas in English you might use the term "A - Z", in Swedish it would be "A - Ö". Unlike in English, Y is always a vowel, except in the case of some loanwords. W has not been included in the Swedish alphabet for a long time, but since 2006 the Swedish Academy considers W as a separate letter. However, this is not fully accepted in dictionaries and other instances yet.

The Vowels

Vowels are divided into short and long vowels, similarly to English. Just as in English, the short and long versions of vowels are pronounced differently. When reading new words you should pay attention to whether the vowels are short or long. The basic rule is that a vowel is short if it is followed by more than one consonant, similar to English. Much like English, though, there will be exceptions to the rule.

Long Vowels

Letter	Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation	English equivalent
A	ɑː	listen  mat, /mɑːt/, "food"	ar in start (British English)
E	eː	listen  hel, /heːl/, "whole"	Like ea in yeah, but with wide lips
I	iː	listen  sil, /siːl/, "sieve"	ee in sheet (British English)
O	uː	listen  bot, /buːt/, "penance"	oo in pool (British English)
U	ʉ̟ː	listen  ful, /fʉ̟ːl/, "ugly"	oo in pool (Australian English)
Y	yː	listen  syl, /syːl/, "awl"	Like ee in sheet, but with circular lips (British English)
Å	oː	listen  mål, /moːl/, "goal"	aw in law (British English)
Ä	ɛː	listen  häl, /hɛːl/, "heel"	ea in yeah
Ö	øː	listen  nöt, /nøːt/, "nut"	or in work (British English)

Short Vowels

Letter	Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation	English equivalent
A	a	listen  matt, /mat/, "listless; matte"	None
E, Ä	ɛ	listen  häll, /hɛl/, "flat rock"	e in bed
I	ɪ	listen  sill, /sɪl/, "herring"	i in sit
O	ɔ	listen  moll, /mɔl/, "minor" (music)	o in toll (British English)
O	ʊ	listen  bott, /bʊt/, "lived" (perfect tense)	oo in look
U	ɵ	listen  full, /fɵl/, "full"	Similar to Nevada
Y	ʏ	listen  syll, /sʏl/, "sleeper" (railroad)	Like i in sit, but with circular lips
Ö	œ	listen  nött, /nœt/, "worn"	Like or in work, but shorter

Influence of R

e and ä are pronounced like the a in English trap if before an r. This means ärt is pronounced similarly to English at.

The Consonants

The consonants are mostly similar to English. Most Swedes do not roll the r, which makes Swedish more comfortable for English speakers compared to other European languages. The letters z, q, and w are very uncommon but are used in family and company names. The most obvious differences for English speakers will be that y is never a consonant, and j is pronounced like English's consonantal y.

Long Consonants

As in English, and as demonstrated in the previous section, consonants may be doubled. However, if this happens in the middle of the word (such as erkänna), then the doubled consonant is pronounced with double the length. This is similar to how the word night-time in English is spoken with a doubly long t.

Initial g and k

There is a similar concept to how g is pronounced differently in the English words general and game, only with slightly different rules and a different pronunciation. The letter k also changes pronunciation in Swedish based on the following vowel.

Generally, if the first letter in a word is g and if the next letter is an e, i, ä, ö, or y, then the g is pronounced as an English y.
Generally, if the first letter in a word is k and if the next letter is an e, i, ä, ö, or y, then the k is pronounced as an English sh.

Digraphs

Digraphs are when multiple letters are used in writing to represent a single spoken sound. This also occurs in English (consider sh).

Digraph	English equivalent
dj, gj, hj, lj	y
sj, skj, stj	Sounds like wh in old-fashioned southern US accents
kj, tj	sh
hv	v
ng	ng
gn	ng (gn is not a digraph if at the beginning of a word, where it would be pronounced like agnostic)

Plosives

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
p	listen  pol, /puːl/, "pole" (of axis)
b	listen  bok, /buːk/, "book"
t	listen  tok, /tuːk/, "fool"
d	listen  dop, /duːp/, "christening"
k	listen  kon, /kuːn/, "cone"
ɡ	listen  god, /ɡuːd/, "good"

Fricative

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
f	listen  fot, /fuːt/, "foot"
v	listen  våt, /voːt/, "wet"
s	listen  sot, /suːt/, "soot"
ɧ	listen  sjok, /ɧuːk/, "chunk"
ɕ	listen  kjol, /ɕuːl/, "skirt"
j	listen  jord, /juːrd/, "soil, earth"
h	listen  hot, /huːt/, "threat"

/r/ and Retroflex Assimilations

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
r	listen  rov, /ruːv/, "prey; loot"

Laterals

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
l	listen  lov, /luːv/, "tack (sailing maneuver)"

Nasals

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
m	listen  mod, /muːd/, "courage"
n	listen  nod, /nuːd/, "node"
ŋ	listen  lång, /lɔŋ/, "long"

Stress

Normally the stress is put on the first vowel. The tonality/pitch is more important in some Swedish dialects.

Tonality

Both nita and niten have the stress on the vowel i. However, in some accents the tonality/pitch differs. This is often a situational difference that varies from one word to the next. For more information on tone you can try the Wikipedia article on tone.

Typing Special Characters

The light house "Långe Jan" at the south end of Öland island.

On a PC:

Alt+0229 = å
Alt+0197 = Å
Alt+0228 = ä
Alt+0196 = Ä
Alt+0246 = ö
Alt+0214 = Ö

On a Mac:

Option+a = å
Option+A = Å
Option+u to get ¨ then type a = ä
Option+u to get ¨ then type A = Ä
Option+u to get ¨ then type o = ö
Option+u to get ¨ then type O = Ö

If you don't manage to get these characters, the standard way is to substitute å with aa, ä with ae, and ö with oe.

More Information on Pronunciation

For more detailed information on Swedish pronunciations read the Wikipedia article on Swedish phonology.

Exercise

Pronounce the following Swedish words.

1. skal, sno, tur, kår, ven, mil, syl, när, bör

2. stall, stopp, lupp, sådd, ett, stins, skyll, ärr, börs

3. vara, bliva, heta, kallas, äta, dricka, festa, leka

4. bilen, vägen, äpplet, trädet, smaken, tiken

5. kal, kotte, kul, kål, gam, gott, gurka, gås

6. ge, gick, gylf, Gävle, gök, kedja, kil, kyl, käk, kök